Fast Steam Shovel - Erie B at Brownsville 2001

The common perception is that steam shovels were slow. This one is quite competitive with gas shovels of the era. A large part of the speed is the steam operated clutch on the hoist drum, which allows the hoist to freewheel down, like diesel machines.
This shovel is currently down for boiler work. I hope it will be running again this summer.
The original video format is 720 x 480. The video will look crisp at that viewing size.
This video was shot with a Sony Handycam in Digital 8. This format used 2 hour Hi-8 analog videotapes, running at 2x speed, to produce high quality 1 hour digital video. It was a revolutionary format at the time, and was used extensively by news media for field news gathering, such as in Iraq. A bit of image quality is lost in the MS moviemaker editor, losing some of the striking immediacy of the format. Note that it is interlaced, and sized for broadcast televisions of the time.
This is the third video from a large box full of 75(!) of these 1 hour tapes, that WurliTzer153Duplex is gradually converting via FireWire. These were shot by both of us, with several cameras, and it's interesting to figure out who did what.
There is some cool stuff in there.
National Pike Show
Brownsville PA
June 2001
Sony Handycam Digital 8
#588
20010520e Erie Shovel BV